The Week Ahead At Cal State Northridge ...

May 05, 2008

May 5, 2008

The Week Ahead ...Katie Holloway helps United States to bronze medal ... Bob Vazquez, Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations, offers his weekly insights on the accomplishments of the teams, coaches, and student-athletes who compete for CSUN.

Matador Minute ...
The Matador men's basketball team has added another quality opponent to its 2008-09 schedule ... The Matadors will face New Mexico on Nov. 24 in Albuquerque ... That is good news for Matador guard Josh Jenkins, who was an all-state performer at Valley High School in Albuquerque ... The Lobos have been traditionally one of the top teams in the country ... In the last 25 years, New Mexico has been a participant in the NCAA Tournament or the NIT 21 times ... The Matadors are also trying to schedule another Pac-10 team for 2008-09 ... CSUN has already agreed to play at Stanford's Maples Pavilion in mid-November ... Katie Holloway is already back from Egypt after helping the U.S. Women's Sitting Volleyball Team defeat Ukraine to win the bronze medal at the World Organization for Disabled (WOVD) Intercontinental Cup in Ismailia, Egypt ... The U.S. Women swept Ukraine (25-18, 25-15, 25-14) and finished the tournament with a 4-2 record ... The Netherlands defeated Slovenia in the gold medal match ... The WOVD Intercontinental Cup is a pre-paralympic event which brought both men and women of nine nations together (United States, Netherlands, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Russia, Iran and host Egypt ... The U.S. team, now ranked third in the world, has qualified for the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing (Sept. 6-17) ... After graduating from Cal State Northridge with a degree in Sociology in two weeks, Holloway will move to Edmond, Oklahoma to train with the United States team ... Every athletic department, be it a major school or not, has an elite group of student-athletes who distinguish themselves on-and-off the court ... Holloway fits that elite class of student-athletes at Cal State Northridge ... A great athlete and an excellent student ... Good luck, Katie,in your future endeavors on-and-off the court ... A lot of critics always ask the question about the value of sports ... One of Holloway's coaches on the USA National Sitting Team is Denise Van De Valle who is also the head women's volleyball coach at Bowling Green State University ... Here are some of her thoughts (about the role of sports in today's society) while the American Paralympic team competed at the recent WOVD Tournament in Egypt ... "I am amazed at how athletics bridges all kinds of gaps. We sat right next to Iraq's men's team in the restaurant while I know we're at war with them nearby. It's incredible. I was so happy when the women's coach from Iran came running up to me in the gym covered from head to toe in her black wrap and pulled me aside to show me she was wearing a BGSU (Bowling Green) Volleyball t-shirt underneath! She couldn't wait to show me! I had met her in China this past summer and gave her one of my t-shirts there. It brought tears to my eyes. We are friends through volleyball and yet we come from such very different backgrounds ... "